80 Ga. 526 | Ga. | 1888
Smith brought suit against the Central Railroad and Banking Company for damages; wherein he alleged that he made a contract with the defendant whereby it agreed to carry him safely, for a certain sum of money, from station number 6 on its road to the city of Savannah, on a freight-train; and that upon arriving at his destination, the train was stopped, so that the car upon which he was riding was carelessly and negligently placed in close proximity to a dangerous and exposed pitfall or retaining wall, in the dark and without a light; that this wall was twenty feet high from the ground, and without any railing thereon to serve as a guide or protection ; that no light was furnished and no notice given of the existence of the wall or his proximity thereto; and that in attempting to make his way from the car to the passenger depot of the defendant, he fell over the wall and was in consequence greatly injured.
The first three grounds of the motion are the usual ones, that the verdict is contrary to law, to the evidence, and against the weight of evidence. The 4th ground is that the verdict is excessive. The 5th, 6 th and 7th grounds complain of the charge of the court as given. The 8th ground excepts to the admission of the testimony of James Watts.
These, in substance, were the facts before the jury on the trial of the case which we are now reviewing. If they are true ( and the j ury by their verdict have so found them), we think that they authorize the verdict, — that-the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence, nor contrary to law, as claimed by the plaintiff in error, nor was it so .grossly excessive as to authorize this court, under the facts .above recited, to reverse the j udgment of the court below in refusing to grant a new trial upon that ground.
It is contended, however, by counsel for the plaintiff in 'error, that this court, when the case was here before (76 Ga. 209,) decided, upon the same state of facts, that “ a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $10,000 is not only flagrantly extravagant, but so excessive as to disclose either bias in his favor or prej udice against the defendant ”; and counsel contend that this court in the present case is bound by this decision, the facts being the same. We have compared the facts as reported in 76 Ga. and the facts as .disclosed by the record in the case now before us, .and upon the only question decided by this court before, :namely, as to contributory negligence, we think the facts are now very different. The evidence, as stated in the report of the former case, showed that the cab was stopped on the second track from the wall, which would place Smith twelve or fifteen feet from the wall, and hence, in order for him to have fallen over the wall, in the distance which it was said he walked, it would have been necessary for him to go at right angles from the cab instead of following his guide. The evidence in the present case, however, shows that the cab was stopped on the
Judgment affirmed.